Mercy Immense and Free: Essays on Wesley and Wesleyan Theology

Mercy Immense and Free: Essays on Wesley and Wesleyan Theology

This volume celebrates the Wesleyan scholarship of Victor Shepherd, the first professor to occupy the Chair of Wesley Studies at Tyndale University College & Seminary in Toronto, Canada. The essays collected here explore not only the life and theology of John and Charles Wesley, but also many themes relating to the contemporary Wesleyan tradition, especially within the Canadian context Attention is given to the intellectual, social and religious context of John Wesley's theology, as well as to the ecumenical significance of a theologian who is seen to relate readily to many different families within the universal church. A pastor for four decades, Shepherd's thought always reflects Wesley's insistence on "practical divinity" or theology not oriented to speculation but rather to the concrete concerns of the people of God in their engagement with the treachery of their own hearts and the turbulence in the wider world.